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. 2024 Aug;29(32):2400036.
doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2024.29.32.2400036.

Syphilis testing in blood donors, France, 2007 to 2022

Syria Laperche  1 , Claire Sauvage  2 , Sophie Le Cam  3 , Florence Lot  2 , Lucile Malard  1 , Pierre Gallian  1 , Elodie Pouchol  1 , Pascale Richard  1 , Pascal Morel  3 , Philippe Grange  4   5 , Pierre Tiberghien  3   6 , Nadjet Benhaddou  4 , Nicolas Dupin  4   5
Affiliations

Syphilis testing in blood donors, France, 2007 to 2022

Syria Laperche et al. Euro Surveill. 2024 Aug.

Abstract

BackgroundSyphilis in blood donors (BD) has increased in many countries.AimWe aimed to describe trends in syphilis seroposivity in BD in France, to identify risk factors and assess if a non-treponemic test (NTT) could define BD having recovered from syphilis for more than 1 year.MethodsThe analysis covered the period 2007 to 2022 and 45,875,939 donations. Of the 474 BD syphilis-positive in 2022, 429 underwent additional investigations with an NTT. History of syphilis was obtained at the post-donation interview or based on serology results for repeat donors.ResultsUntil 2021, positivity rates remained stable (mean: 1.18/10,000 donations, range: 1.01-1.38). An increased rate was observed in 2022 (1.74/10,000; p = 0.02). Over the whole study period, prevalence was 2.2 times higher in male than in female BD (4.1 times higher in 2022). The proportion of males with an identified risk factor who have sex with men increased from 16.7% in 2007 to 64.9% in 2022. Based on NTT, 79 (18%) of the donors who were seropositive in 2022 were classified as having been infected in the previous year. History of syphilis was available for 30 of them. All had an infection within the previous 3 years. Among seven donors with a syphilis < 12 months before testing, one had an NTT titre ≥ 8, three a titre between 1 and 4, three were negative.ConclusionSyphilis seropositivity increased considerably in BDs in 2022, mostly in males, notably MSM. Available data did not allow appropriate evaluation of the NTT to distinguish recent from past infection.

Keywords: France; Syphilis; blood donors; diagnostic; epidemiology; screening; sexually transmitted infections.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Trends in syphilis antibodies positive rate in blood donors, France, 2007–2022 (n = 5,580)
Figure 2
Figure 2
Prevalence of syphilis antibodies per 10,000 donations in first-time blood donors, France, 2007–2022 (n = 3,649)
Figure 3
Figure 3
Trends in the percentage of risk factors identified at post-donation interview in syphilis antibody-positive male blood donors, France, 2007–2022 (n = 3,955)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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